Wabi-sabi (in Kanji: 侘寂) represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic. It is difficult to explain precisely in Western terms. According to Leonard Koren , wabi-sabi is the most conspicuous and characteristic feature of what we think of as traditional Japanese beauty and it "occupies roughly the same position in the Japanese pantheon of aesthetic values as do the Greek ideals of beauty and perfection in the West." Andrew Juniper claims, "if an object or expression can bring about, within us, a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing, then that object could be said to be wabi sabi."

Wabi-sabi in Japanese arts

Many Japanese arts over the past thousand years have been influenced by Zen philosophy, particularly acceptance and contemplation of the imperfection, constant flux, and impermanence of all things. Such arts can exemplify a wabi-sabi aesthetic. Here is an incomplete list:

• Japanese gardens, Zen gardens, and bonsai (tray gardens)
• ikebana (flower arrangement)
• Japanese tea ceremony
• Japanese poetry, particularly haiku
• Japanese pottery
• honkyoku (traditional music of wandering Zen monks)

Western use

During the 1990s the concept was borrowed by computer software developers and employed in Agile programming and Wiki wiki to describe acceptance of the state of ongoing imperfection that is the product of these methods.

References

• Juniper, Andrew (2003). Wabi Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence. Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 0804834822.

External links

• Wabi and Sabi: The Aesthetics of Solitude
• Japanese Aesthetics, Wabi-Sabi, and the Tea Ceremony